If you have kids, you know that your schedule is never what it's supposed to be. Someone is always getting out early, having a teacher's work day, a math tutor, someone's walking home and calls and says, no, come pick them up. . .
When I was in college, we had a test to find different careers that might be appropriate for us. The two the test gave me were graphic designer and bus driver. I sort of did the graphic design when I did advertising, but the fact is, I am indeed a bus driver (which I found kind of offensive at the time, I have to admit).
The problem comes in when you factor in writing. Writing uses brain cells and all of mine are always a step behind. My kids' orthodondist actually calls me on Sunday if I have an appt on Monday. How pathetic that she knows, I will probably forget to look at my calendar when necessary.
My editor at Thomas Nelson was having a birthday. They gave me TWO MONTHS' warning that I was to send in a signed book. TWO MONTHS! Well, that seemed so far and before you know it...the books were late. My son is having a birthday on Monday. I have to write it on my calendar -- I gave BIRTH to the boy!
But I take pride in the fact that I have not forgotten a kid somewhere. They have been taken to soccer practice, dental appts, doctors, two for the othodondist, two schools, three different times for pickup -- and I'm not even counting the dog at the vet.
So when my brain is mine to write, it is MINE. I don't want to talk on the phone, clean house, plan dinner or exercise -- I simply want my brain back -- all four hundred cells that I have left. Is that too much to ask for a humble bus driver?
Kristin Billerbeck
The Trophy Wives Club, Avon Inspire
Back to Life, Avon Inspire, September 2008
I hear ya. Though I'm a terrible "bus driver." I'm often playing aerobics music in the car while planning my fitness class, imagining a scene for a novel that fits with one of the Air 1 songs on the radio, or actually reading at stoplights. Not to mention eating, talking on the phone, and quizzing my daughter for her spelling test. The job of a bus driver couldn't pay enough.
Posted by: Angela Meuser | March 11, 2008 at 07:56 PM